Perhaps motorists should agree on a deal - 20 MPH in town center is fine as long as motorway speed limit is raised, say to 80 MPH. Most modern cars capable of doing 100 MPH easily. There will be always some problematic drivers but that's true at any speed so that can't be excuse for not raising motorway speed limit.

Quite a lot of vehicles can easily exceed the M'way speed limit, but any vehicle doing much over 60 will do fewer mpg, simply because of increasing air and rolling resistance. If you have the slightest interest in using less fuel you (all of us) should bear that in mind. Plus of course the possible result of any big collisions.

The joy of local democracy is that you can vote for whoever promises to scrap the proposal if you want. Why should Westminster want to get involved.

20mph has some plausible benefits:

• reduced injuries and deaths compared to 30mph, although some research shows the frequency of accidents is little changed
• reduced emissions partly from the speed reduction, but more important (probably) is less braking and acceleration
• it may make little difference to average speeds in practice - less waiting at junctions and traffic lights, more time spent driving

More significant is whether it makes any difference at all to actual driving habits. The law abiders will follow the rules, most others will drive (probably below 35mph) to suit conditions, a few routinely ignore the rules as policing is spasmodic at best.

Actually doesnt make any difference to anything apart from your travelling slower, pedestrians take thier time crossing the road as they dont always hear cars coming at 20mph, we have the cleanest air we have ever had so 20mph makes no difference whatsoever..all in the name of trying to get cars off the road

will reduce pollution and make life more pleasant for everyone.

not sure how, as it makes no difference with petrol cars, its diesels who smoke everyone out going over humps and changing gears in 20 limits even newish diesels can be smokers...

If they are broken they maybe...I know mine does not smoke.

will reduce pollution and make life more pleasant for everyone.

not sure how, as it makes no difference with petrol cars, its diesels who smoke everyone out going over humps and changing gears in 20 limits even newish diesels can be smokers...

As I said, driving at a constant 20mph is obviously better than constantly accelerating and braking.

<< The 20mph limit doesn't bother me a bit. Hangar lane is 30MPH when we use it, but in any of the roads we would never have got to 20 let alone 30. >>

It is difficult, but not impossible, to manage 30mph on a pushbike, but a lot easier to keep up 20mph when traffic allows. Are keen cyclists likely to be fined like drivers for exceeding this Welsh limit ?

It might have been asked before - but what happened to Sammy?

So by ‘changing the gearing’ he just means ‘changing gear’? Or do they have a low/high range, like an off roader, which would ‘change the gearing’?.

I have been looking into this and...am none the wiser.

However, I was interested to see discover that a major reason almost all modern buses are automatic is wheelchair accessibility.

The engine is at the back, as we all know, so that's also the best place to put the gearbox to avoid any propshaft having to run the length of the bus (requiring ground clearance). If the bus was manual, there would need to be a linkage, so they did away with that too.

As for what this professor was on about, I think he was suggesting that modern buses do indeed have high and low ratios. I can certainly see things saying that modern (auto) buses have very short gearing to minimise the engine load. It seems like there is one setting for accelerating between 0 and 30 and another for crusing. Essentially an overdrive, I suppose. Presumably, trying to maintain a low speed with a short-geared auto would lead to a lot of hunting.

The cynical part of me agrees that a proposed roll-back of the 20 mph limits might be a vote winner for the Tories. While I agree that the policy 20 mph limits needs review on a UK-wide basis, this would certainly not persuade me to vote for the Tories!

I don't you even have to think about it cynically to know that's the only reason they would propose the roll back.

Its nothing more than a deflection from the real issues facing the country. Hence why the Tories are making a big fuss about it.

Very few roads in Wales are 20 mph, its not a blanket ban as the Welsh Tories would have you believe.

www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/01/07/wales-speed-li.../

Motorists in Wales are allowed to drive at 25mph in 20mph zones before being prosecuted, it has emerged, in contrast to rules across the rest of Britain.

From Monday, drivers can be fined, receive points or even lose their licence for exceeding the new widespread 20mph speed limits on Welsh roads in residential areas.

But GoSafe Wales, the road safety partnership which brings together local authorities and the police, said the enforcement threshold would start at 10 per cent of the speed limit, plus 4mph – meaning prosecution begins at 26mph in a 20mph limit.

So it appears that you can drive at indicated 30 MPH in speedo and mostly be fine.

.... living in Wales I can confirm it's extremely unpopular, poorly implemented , confusing and a ball ache, as one can often get stuck behind a mimser doing 10 to 15 mph just in case! Overtaking has become more common in 20mph areas!

After more than 60 years driving I can report having received my first speeding 'ticket' - detected by a fixed camera at 26 in a new 20 zone in north Wales. As the letter arrived only 5 days after the offence, I suspect that this may be a new automatic notification without human intervention. The letter says I can 'view the collision and speed history' (which this limit is 'intended to improve') on the gosafe.org website - so I did that, and there is no history yet, confirming my suspicion. Can the recently reshuffled Welsh govt have triggered this ?

Anyway, as a first offence it is only a Final Warning letter. Earlier messages in this thread say that 25 is tolerated, but perhaps that has changed too ? I have been driving this road every few weeks for about 20 years.

detected by a fixed camera at 26 in a new 20 zone

If letter claims you did 26 in a 20 zone, considering speedo overreads, I am somewhat inclined to say you were doing 30 MPH.

I don't see how you work that out, as cameras are intended to report true speeds ? Unless you mean that my speedo was showing 30 ? Not the same thing. Anyhow it seems to me that the alleged Welsh leniency may have ended. 20 + 10% + 2 comes to 24, so my error was pretty small.